Jasmine Sweatman

For the past four years I have been a regular contributor to the All About Estates blog. Although I have thoroughly enjoyed being part of this collaborative process, this will be my last blog post entry. I have enjoyed working as part of the All About Estate teams and sharing…

By now most of us have heard that the Trudeau government is asking the Supreme Court to grant a six months extension to the deadline imposed last year as part of the Carter decision (see 2015 SCC 5). What this means is still unclear but adds to the speculation that…

Digital assets was an interesting topic of conversation at this month’s OBA Brown Bag Lunch (BBL) session. Digital assets usually refer to virtual or intangible assets and can range from blogs to Air Miles to online accounts (i.e. financial, Facebook, YouTube, etc.), to online gaming assets such as in virtual…

Being a provincial jurisdictional issue, health care reform was not a hot button topic during the media’s election coverage. But health care issues and reform are fundamental to the current issues facing our governments, be that at the municipal, provincial or federal level. “Home Care,” that is, support services for…

In Burkhardt v. Burkhardt Estate, 2015, the Ontario Superior Court addressed the issue of common habitual residence to determine the wife’s entitlement to her husband’s estate, and in doing so, highlighted the interplay of Family and Estates law in Ontario. The testator, Walter Burkhardt was an entrepreneur who left Germany…

There has been a fair amount of discussion about the new rules starting January 1, 2016, and the tax treatment of charitable gifts after the death of an individual will change significantly. What about the impact on estates that are in litigation? Now, when a gift is made “by will”…

October 1 was National Senior’s Day. This national day was created (by statute called the Celebrating Canada’s Seniors Act, S.C. 2010) to acknowledge the contribution of seniors to Canadian society and to the Canadian economy which this contribution being identified by the sharing of their experiences, expertise and knowledge with…

If you were looking at the sky last night you would have seen the moon at its closest point to Earth. This is something apparently that happens every couple of decades with the last time this happened over 30 years ago. Before it turned red it was impressive with the…

We have blogged in the past about the Carter decision and end of life care and the importance of ensuring your family know your wishes with regards to end of life decisions. The government of Ontario has recently put out a survey on Doctor-assisted dying and end-of-life decisions to help…

Not all parties involved in estate administration are entitled to apply for a passing of accounts. Section 42(4) of the Substitute Decisions Act (SDA) lists all the people who may apply. While the list does not include estate trustees or beneficiaries of an estate, it does allow the court discretion…